I don't think it's necessary to out her by screen name, since she has not posted in many years and she has been deleting all her social media, but she indeed was here and indeed friended people in real life from this board.

Sen,
THANK YOU so much for this information. As with everything you present, it’s well-researched and well written. I have a question: do you have any similar research on how to identify BOTS? I think I can pretty well pick them out on letters responding to mostly political articles, but your dissection is so succinct I wondered. Thanks again!

I remember that screen name. Its amazing that given all the members from that org who were very active on GC, that she was not called out then.

Yeah....but wasn't she even trading phone calls and e-mails with people and meeting up with them in real life like she was the biz? That's pretty gutsy! I can't blame members of that organization for being duped.

Yeah....but wasn't she even trading phone calls and e-mails with people and meeting up with them in real life like she was the biz? That's pretty gutsy! I can't blame members of that organization for being duped.

I don't know what she did offline, so I can't say.

If she claimed to be a member through a school like "Eastern Idaho State" (a PWI), where that org may have very few members in that part of the US, then yeah, she can perp pretty easily.

Or, if she said she came through an underground chapter, then people may not be willing to challenge her since no one (in the NPHC) wants to bring up an ugly situation (underground chapters --> don't disturb the hornets nest).

If she claimed to be a member through a HBCU, she would have been found out in 2 seconds.

ETA: It also depends on when she said she was initiated. If she was initiated pre-MIP (before 1990 / 1991), then she could perp. Or, if she said she was initiated at a chapter that was closed right after she joined, then she can perp.

Putting it all together (via Sen's article) she could perp if: 1) she said she was initiated at Eastern Idaho State in 1985 and the chapter was closed after she joined; or 2) she joined an underground chapter in 1985 at Eastern Idaho State.

__________________
"I am the center of the universe!! I also like to chew on paper." my puppy

Great article. I am thankful for the perspective. Are ghost members and underground chapters all that common?

As far as I know, not very common in my sorority, SGR, but we've had a few of both.

I think another contributing factor is when a collegiate chapter goes through being open, then closed, then opened and closed again over a short period of time - membership status can get lost in the shuffle.

NPHC's MIP (as we know it today) was developed to streamline and better control the NM period ("pledge process") because chapters were a bit rampant.

There was a case with AKA where a chapter in California was closed, but there were women who wanted to join, so an unscrupulous member had these women pledging, and the PNMs died. This is an example of an underground chapter.